The pretty E3 Legend of Zelda demo for the Wii U was just that, a demo.

Nintendo brought a Legend of Zelda demo to E3 2011 to show off the capabilities of the Wii U, which was basically a more gorgeous (though unplayable) version of a realistic Link from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess fighting a giant spider. A hint of things to come? Not necessarily.

Similar to the Legend of Zelda GameCube demo that Nintendo showed off in 2000, featuring a realistic Link going up against Ganondorf, the Wii U Legend of Zelda demo is also just a tech demo. The 2000 showing is notorious for having turned into the cel-shaded Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, much to the chagrin of people that were expecting a different graphical style.

Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma revealed the news to Wired, comparing the Wii U demo to the GameCube demo. "You probably remember that when we introduced the GameCube, we showed a somewhat realistic Zelda demo," he said. "And what we actually created was the cel-shaded Wind Waker. So when we show a graphic demo, people think, 'Oh, this is what the next Zelda will look like,' but that's not necessarily the case."

Aonuma added that we might not even see the functionality of having the menu screen on the Wii U controller while the gameplay is on the TV, also shown at E3. He said that for Zelda on Wii U, he'd like to do things "more surprising than that."

And this is a bad thing how? Windwaker is easily the best LoZ game of recent memory. I'd love to see a new Zelda that takes a radically different approach in terms of art direction than TP, which was barely different than OoT in terms of art direction (well, it was barely different from OoT in terms of everything except for the extreme linearity, to be honest).

This might end up working out for the best. Hopefully we get a really new, bold LoZ game on the WiiU, instead of a rehash of OoT like TP was. Even a WW sequel might be pretty cool.

A) Yeah it looks cartoony, but zelda is a cartoony game. It fitsB) You can make things real pretty without burning all your discspace on the intricacies of a small flower on a field.C) I liked the boat.D) I guess some of the art design is kinda dependent on the protagonist at the time: Young link cartoony, older link more realistic.

Prepare for the inevitable "hurr cartuney grafix meens fur babbys durr" crowd to moan about this. I personally would like to see a full game with the WiiU tech demo style, but I don't mind as long as the game is fun.

Not that I've ever heard of a case of a LoZ fan being disappointed by a game in the frnachise...

Well, when I ignore the things I heard about Crossbow training anyway...

Moar On Topic!

Personally, dispite my lack of engagement in the LoZ franchise (I've played about two hours of OoT and PHG each) I'm much more interested in the cartoony visuals that Wind Waker, Hourglass and Spirit Tracks brought with them.

It's understandable that in Todays gaming culture fans will sprout mighty nerdalicious hard-ons for realistic visuals and lighting and what-have-yous.

But I yearn for the more simplistic, IT's why I've really enjoyed games recently like Okamiden, Ghost Trick and Spiral Knights.

Games that are either daring enough to make a stance visually to represent the games main features (Okami) or games that don't blow the whole budget on graphics and leave nothing for beautifully polished gameplay mechanics (Ghost Trick)

I'd come up for one about Spiral Knights, but honestly I just think it's adorable, also the fact that Ian Mcconville of Machall and ThreePanelSoul is the lead artist behind it all doesn't hurt.

I think what I'm getting at here is, I'd much rather they went with simple graphics and polished mechanics over Pretty as hell but handles like shit.

Of course, saying that Twilight Princess looked pretty (for the time) and worked pretty good. So maybe There's nothing to worry about at all really?

We already have several trailers for Skyward Sword, before and after the tech demo. I'd be amazed if people acted surprised that it wasn't the same style.

For the record, I also REALLY liked Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. WW started to give us special attacks, and TP made them required for some fights, and allowed their use to be entirely dictated by the player, which I enjoyed. I also liked how the graphics added to the games, TP was a bit darker, so they went with more realism, while WW was more light hearted with it's humor and story, and they both were the better for it.

As long as it is a fun Zelda game, I could careless about the art style. If anything, the art style helped me out though the game when I would get stuck (Link's massive eyes would wonder towards objects of interest).

This is bad? With the WiiU's power they should be able to render cell-shading of the kind seen in 2008's Prince of Persia which is undeniably beautiful. Zelda in that art style will make my gaming life complete for quite a while.

Hold on. Read the article well. Just someone who doesn't know Nintendo well can think next Zelda will be Cell Shading because of this type of comments. It's plain ridicudlous. I bet 100€ next Zelda won't be WW sequel, and it's improbable altrough not impossible to be in cellshading, but I doubt it. I think they meant it next Zelda won't be like TP graphics (which is the Techdemo improved), but that doesn't mean it has to be Cellshading.

Anyway whathever the results I don't mind. Tloz is one of the best sagas in the videogame Wold and my favorite one. Nintendo always knows what to do in them.

The mere mention of WW makes me wish they'd release it and other Zelda titles on Steam, but I know that's an impossible dream. Nintendo has their head too far up their own ass to realize the money potential from that.

Why is there so much hate for cell shading? It's just as unrealistic as Chris Redfield's arm being bigger than his head, or marines made out of refrigerators. Plus, it takes loads more effort to pull off, and I think has good qualities. Plus, it's a TECH DEMO, not a trailer. People jump the gun too many times with the world.

I'm on board with more Wind Waker. Really, of all the LoZ games, this one felt the most epic, and the visual style was crammed with charm. I'd like to see the new console upgrade its hardware quite a bit, but graphics aren't the only way to utilize better hardware.

What I love about cel-shaded games is that, when they're done well, they take the focus off of realistic textures and they focus instead on realistic movement. What's more, the character and the background feel far more integrated, because there's not that usual difference in quality between the two. The world might not look more realistic, but it feels like it.

This, to me, is what made the animation in something like Monsters, Inc. better than the animation in Shrek--Dreamworks had gorgeous textures, but all of the movement was chunky and fake, while Pixar had weird-looking characters that moved and expressed in real-feeling ways.